Hi everyone~
I need advice. The backstory: My doctor at SUNY Downstate told me the results of my CT Angiogram today. He says that I am very rare (I took that to mean that I am a mutant), but instead of one renal vein/one renal artery per kidney, I have two of each (so four veins/arteries, two to the vena cava and two to the aorta). He says this happens in about 20-25% of people and he has seen and done successful transplants with this condition. Since my right kidney is the bigger one and has shorter veins they would leave me with this one and take the left. Another thing that makes my case more complex is that one of the renal veins on the left side travels behind the aorta to the vena cava--he said this is extremely rare (1%). He said surgery is not impossible but is more complex.
This scares me because it is riskier now. Downstate didn't do transplants for 2 years and while I trust this particular doctor because he has extensive experience, he said he was uncomfortable doing the surgery without a few simple transplants conducted by the team. The team is new here and he doesn't want to start them off with a complex case. There are three transplants going to be done soon at the hospital, but I don't want to be the first complex case done by this team, I want to have people (besides the doctor) who have done countless transplants under the belt.
Has anyone ever switched hospitals? Is that even possible? I'm wondering if my family should check out New York Presbyterian. I don't really know what to do here.